For The Press

Press Release

07/01/2019: Wycliffe Associates Using Technology to Make Bible Accessible for the World’s Unwritten Language Groups

(Orlando, Florida, USA)—Christians from hundreds of language groups have asked Wycliffe Associates for technology to make the Bible accessible in their unwritten languages. The international organization involving people in the advancement of Bible translation recently has received requests for more than 300 Bible Translation Recording Kits (BTRKs). The kits, developed by Wycliffe Associates, contain user-friendly Bible translation technology to help mother-tongue Bible translation teams translate the Scriptures for themselves and create audio recordings of their work. The kits also make the Scriptures accessible for those who are unable to read.

“I have witnessed the incredible effectiveness of our recording kits,” said Bruce Smith, President and CEO of Wycliffe Associates. “The people receiving them have never imagined anything like this. All their lives they’ve been told the Bible is written, in book form, and read. They assumed they were left out.”

Wycliffe Associates’ BTRKs include a computer tablet, translation and recording software, a microphone, and headphones.

After mother-tongue Bible translators have translated Scripture into their language, they use the kits to make multiple copies of recorded Scripture for distribution to their respective language groups. The recordings can be accessed using a flash drive or on a mobile phone.

“We’ve seen translators use a BTRK, then go home to their village after a day of translation work, gather their neighbors around the fire at night, and retell the Bible stories they translated that day . . . the first time in human history that these stories have ever been shared in their language!” said Smith.

One Bible translator from the Philippines said he was planning to put the recordings in his sound system and place it on his veranda so his neighbors could hear them.

“There is no question in my mind that God gave us this remarkable tool to communicate His love to people who could not experience it any other way,” said Smith.

Each recording kit with all the essential components costs $500, and Wycliffe Associates already has received funding for the first 60 of the 300 BTRKs that have been requested.

“Millions are living and dying without truly understanding God’s Word,” said Smith. “Bible Translation Recording Kits are a destiny-changing tool. We need a recording of Scripture in every language so that no one is without God’s Word.”Wycliffe Associates has distributed 771 BTRKs since the program’s start in 2015.

About Wycliffe Associates

One of the world’s leading Bible translation organizations, Wycliffe Associates was organized in 1967 by friends of Bible translators to accelerate the work of Bible translation. Wycliffe Associates empowers national Bible translators to provide God’s Word in their own language, partners with the local church to direct and guard translation work, harnessing their passion and desire for God’s Word, and engages people from all around the world to provide resources, technology, training, and support for Bible translation.

Because millions of people around the world still wait to have the Scriptures in the language of their hearts, Wycliffe Associates is working as quickly as it can to see every verse of God’s Word translated into every tongue to speak to every heart. Wycliffe Associates is directly involved with speeding Bible translation by providing technology, training, resources, logistics, networking, expertise, volunteers, discipleship, church planting, and support. Wycliffe Associates staff and volunteers are currently accelerating Bible translations in 101 countries. For more information, please see www.wycliffeassociates.org. # # #